Picked up a new DD

[sneitzel]

Took the plunge and got a new vehicle.



2004 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
58K miles
Supercharged 3.8L Series III

[raroZ28]

I always liked those. Sweet ride dude, love the color.

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

I picked one up a couple years ago. It's no Camaro, but pretty entertaining for a front driver and a great highway cruiser. You'll be surprised how much it'll hold with all the passenger seats down.

Make sure you top off the supercharger oil. Mine was down by almost half a bottle.

[Steel2686]

Nice car. Makes a great daily driver. Good luck with it!

[sneitzel]

Make sure you top off the supercharger oil. Mine was down by almost half a bottle.

Actually, I have a question in that area...

I have never owned a supercharged car before now. Are there any things in particular I need to watch out for?

Would you have any suggestions for a GP specific forum?
I'm currently evaluating grandprixforums.net

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

ClubGP.com is the best place to go for answers. Here's their write-up on adding supercharger oil:

http://www.clubgp.com/cgi-asp/mods.asp?modid=13

It only takes a minute to do and you'll just need an allen wrench and supercharger oil. The oil is specific to the supercharger and you can order it at a GM dealership. PFYC.com carries it also. Some folks use a baster to remove the old stuff before refilling, but the manual says that you only have to top it off.

[Al 96 Ram Air T/A]

Geez man...you scared me there for a second. When the picture first opened, all I saw was the Toyota dealer sign. I said to myself....Nooooooooo!


Then I saw the car...whew...don't scare me like that.

[Rhode Island Red]

That is a great new DD! I can't wait until I can get something great like that. Hope you didn't pay too much for it!

[Joe 1320]

I had one of those as a rental for about 2000 miles. it was a great car!

[PontiacFan]

I drove an '04 GP-GTII for about 4 years.
My daughter drives it now & it has nearly 165k miles on it. We replaced the water-pump around 100k, & replaced the front wheel bearings at 160k.
(Not supercharged tho, but I always had my foot in it anyway, ...)

Nice ride, Good Luck!
And ClubGP is THE place for GP info.

[Trash man]

did they fix the supercharger belt tensioner yet? i knew they use to lock up and eat the belt

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

did they fix the supercharger belt tensioner yet? i knew they use to lock up and eat the belt

Actually, I had to replace mine earlier this year. I didn't have a chance to compare the parts to see if there've been any changes though.

Also, the headlights/foglights assemblies on the 2004 & 2005 models have been known to haze up over time. HeadlightsDepot at Ebay has good replacements at a decent price of $125.

I just installed headlight assembly replacements in less than two minutes flat. This car is so easy to work on compared to my '96 Z28.

Cheap upgrades for handling include front & rear strut tower braces, trailing arms, and a rear stabilizer bar. These are all GM parts. They all bolt in easily, but the STB's need brackets that can be found on clubgp.com. The rear stabilizer from the CompG noticeably helps the understeer. I just wish I had the bucks for the whole CompG suspension.

[sneitzel]

Also, the headlights/foglights assemblies on the 2004 & 2005 models have been known to haze up over time.

Ya, my headlights are in bad shape. Not so much hazy but pitted badly.

You would have to tempt me with mods already wouldn't you...
Links to any of those parts???

Question,
Do you run premium like the manual "suggests" or just regular?

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

Yeah, I know. I told myself I wouldn't do any mods too. I tried to choose carefully based on price and bang for the buck and didn't go all out.

I only use premium because my PCM's been reprogrammed. I did use 87 on a few occassions before that. The manual says it's safe to use. Power is down noticably. GM says it still makes 240HP with regular gas. Mileage also dropped slightly and ate into any savings that I had at the gas pump.

Front and Rear STB's were originally Buick parts and were about $30 last I checked. (GM part #12456148) You'll need mounting brackets though as they don't bolt up directly by themselves, unless you don't mind drilling holes. Here are the brackets I used: http://www.drcustomparts.com/

GMPP has HD Rear Trailing arms for relatively cheap. zzperformance.com sells them for $65.

I don't have the part number for the rear stabilizer bar, but it's the same one off of the CompG. I reused the same bushings but you can use some poly-bushings if you want to go all out. They'll need some slight modification though because the bushing bracket on the car uses a clip and one bolt instead of just two bolts. This did help the understeer and is the one I'd recommend if you're only going to do one thing.

[sneitzel]

Well...
I must admit I was not informed about the options available on the GP.
Apparently, neither was the dealer...

As it turns out my car is a Comp G and I didn't even know it (I don't think the dealer did either).

It has TAP Shift


red painted calipers


and then there's this...


So,
I apparently have the upgraded rear sway bar already.
The STBs and HD Rear Trailing arms are still upgrades yes?